The present invention relates to a customer controlled terminal for enablement of a selected fuel dispenser, and more particularly relates to a customer console which communicates with an attendant-controlled terminal located within the sales office of the gasoline station.
Heretofore, equipment has been provided in service stations which permit the remote enablement of gasoline dispensers by an attendant-controlled terminal. The terminal is located in the sales office of the service station remote from the islands containing pump dispensers. Such a terminal prevents theft of gasoline by allowing only the attendant to enable fuel dispensing pumps.
A fully automated vending apparatus for the dispensement of fuel, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,786,421 issued to W. Wostl on Jan. 15, 1974. The Wostl U.S. Pat. No. 3,786,421 device provides a step forward in the art, eliminating the service station attendant altogether by permitting self-vending of the fuel and self-payment by the customer. The Wostl U.S. Pat. No. 3,786,421 device, however, is not capable of handling the sales of goods which cannot be automatically dispensed and, therefore, does not create a transactional receipt for the purchased goods.
Wostl and others thereafter invented other apparatus in order to provide an automated credit card transaction in a vehicle service station which not only speeds up sale transaction but permits the use of an attendant on duty in order to reduce the likelihood of error and fraud. U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,100, Wostl et al., discloses a terminal apparatus which monitors a plurality of fuel dispensers for selectively retrieving fuel sales information to be automatically combined with miscellaneous sales information in the form of a printed receipt by simple command from the attendant. This second generation Wostl device resulted in a step forward in the art providing service station attendant interplay with automated service station functions.
Where a service station includes a terminal apparatus at a central location which is operated by an attendant, the customer parks his car at the pump islands and pumps gas into his vehicle from a normally enabled pump. The customer then walks to the central location for payment by credit card or cash. By permitting the pumps to remain normally enabled at the many islands of the service station, a single attendant is unable to prevent "drive-offs" in which a car pulls to a remote pump, the tank is fueled by the driver and the driver merely drives away without paying.
In order to prevent such drive-offs, some service stations require the customer to walk in to the central location and make pre-payment for gasoline, either by cash or credit card before the attendant will enable the pump. After making pre-payment, the customer must then walk back to the pump island and dispense gasoline. After the dispensing is completed, the customer must then return to the central location to complete the sales transaction by picking up his cash receipt or signing the credit card receipt. It would therefore be highly desirable to provide apparatus which still permits use of a centrally located terminal apparatus and at the same time eliminates the necessity for the customer to make two trips to the centralized location in order to prevent drive-offs.